apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

The Mrs. Beasley is the stuff that nightmares are made of. My nieces have one and it only looks creepier with wear and tear! I remember having that phone myself as a child. That's probably the only one I would consider.

Awesome! I just visited my grandparents in Germany, and had it not been for suitcase limitations, I would have brought back a ton of my old toys that are still in their basement. Among them: the very same Fisher Price music box/tv thing you have pictured, which plays "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and "London Bridge."

slinky dog really works, dude. you pull along the front half and eventually, due to scientific reasons, the back half hurries to catch up.

I just watched a segment on the news about lead paint in children's toys, and some of the toys with the highest lead readings were vintage toys that manufactured before they had such "strict" guidelines. I didn't really look at the site, but I thought I'd point that out to the vintage toy fans out there.

If you don't want to pay for shipping, Target has many of these in their "Mr. Magorium" aisle.

I bought presents at Target from the display of remade vintage toys, the teaching clock music box, and think I'll go back for the 30's duck pull toy and the walking beagle. I did wonder if the "made in China" is ok.????

When I saw these toys in Target the other day, I immediately snatched up the phone and the music box teaching clock (I don't have kids of my own, but I was babysitting last week, so I found it to be a good excuse).... and to be honest, I was really disappointed. My memory of the original toys that I owned as a child was that they were made out of some sort of heavy cardboard or wood material. The new versions I bought were made entirely out of plastic with stickers on the sides which do not appear to be stuck on very well on the sides, they're already being to fray and in some spots, weren't very well put on (air bubble bumps and such). I guess they were okay, the little kid I sat for liked playing with them, but I was expecting a much different quality of toy that I got....

I had the last great childhood, before nutrition, danger, strangers, and hazardous materials were discovered.

ToysRus is carrying these also, only they're in the wooden toy/Melissa and Doug section instead of the Fisher Price aisle. I couldn't resist the two tune tv or the teaching clock. It was weird, all of these memories of looking at the screen of the tv came flooding back to me. My fourteen month old is mesmerized by them. The stickers are thinner - I think that it was done the "old fashioned way" on purpose, it's exactly how i remember them.

nikkiana -- Since my memory was similar to yours, I did some digging through eBay listings to determine that the Chatter Phone was actually mostly plastic but had a wood base. The part with the eyes may also have slanted back more sharply. Here's a listing so you can see for yourself.

We may be a little fuddled because other toys, such as the xylophone, were definitely not plastic. And the old stickers stayed on firmly!

I had completely forgotten about that tv until seeing it here! I forgot the songs it played until they were mentioned! I am definitely going to buy one now. I wonder what other memories will come flooding back when I have it in my hands?!

all of this toy talk got me thinking about my weeble wobble treehouse with its button on top. when you pushed it, the tree opened up to reveal various rooms and the door where the crank-operated elevator brought weeble guests upstairs to enjoy their weeble days. this was different than my other weeble treehouse, which had a weeble rocking chair and weeble picnic bench. oh, how i loved to decorate those wee spaces :o)

My favourite toys - Ker Plunk, Spirograph, Battling tops, and throwing rolled up socks into the wastebasket from across the room.
dob=1966

I remember the tree house differently. Mine weren't weebles... they were Tree Tots. I just googled 'em and saw my old friends! Cool furniture really!

I also had the Partridge Family bus... with little flat David Cassidy, Susan what's her name and Danny Bonaducci people!!!

oh my, clickchick--you are so right. i was too young to know that my round treehouse was a tree tots house, and my square one was a weebles house! (no brand awareness capacity, i guess :o) oh MAN, look at this auction and that furniture! http://tinyurl.com/ywp4w7 i might have to buy this!

I just bought a vintage Two Tune TV off of eBay. I was going to use it as a music box for the baby. I was looking to decorate with a lot of adult things and thought that this would be a nice way to bring in kid things.

oh, I'll be the envy of the neighborhood when we finally have kids.... My mom still has all of my old toys!
My little one will get the original phone :-D

Still have all those fisherprice playsets too... the garage, farm, airplane, schoolhouse.

DOB:1972